


Déjà vu

by xLoveMx



Category: Ransom - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Eric and Maxine, F/M, Ransom, a lot of it, also, blink and you´ll miss it, some feelings involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 21:25:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10907760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLoveMx/pseuds/xLoveMx
Summary: This time it´s not about saving hostages, it´s only about saving her. About preventing her from suffering the same fate her mother had suffered 17 years ago.





	Déjà vu

**Author's Note:**

> Alright. There´s little to no stuff about Ransom, but you all need to watch this show because it´s AMAZING!! So yes, enjoy some angst and lots of feels about Eric and Maxine!!

**_Déjà vu._ **

_The feeling of having already experienced what is happening right now._

The room is silent and Eric can hear the blood pounding in his ears. He´s most definitely having a déjà vu right now, and not one of the harmless once where you are suddenly overcome with a strange feeling of having experienced a situation before, no. The one mistake Eric has made in his life is coming back to haunt him over and over again and there´s nothing he can do about it.

There´s a familiar voice in his ear, telling him that Evie is safe. That they´ve found her. And part of him is relieved, because she is his daughter after all, but this has never been about her. Evie has merely been a distraction to give Delani e enough time to carry out his plan.

A plan that has Eric facing him, Delani with a dirty grin on his face, as he stands behind Maxine, a hand on her shoulder. Eric has a hard time focusing on anything but the loaded gun that Maxine holds against her head and the fact that he can´t tell just how far gone she already is.

“Maxine.” He´s afraid his voice is going to sound shaky when he speaks, but who should care? Delani knows he´s found Eric´s weakness and the last thing he cares about right now is to teach Maxine to not show any weakness when negotiating with a hostage taker.

And he´s not really talking to a hostage taker anyways, because while she´s clearly being manipulated Maxine is still the one holding the gun and Eric has to, once again, force himself to focus on her instead of the way his heart is beating rapidly against his ribcage.

“Maxine, you don´t have to do this.”

This time it´s not about saving hostages, it´s only about saving her. About preventing her from suffering the same fate her mother had suffered 17 years ago. The gun is loose in his hands and Eric has no intention of using it on her. There´s no immediate danger to other people, with Delani and him being the only people around and the gun pointed at her own head.

Eric doesn´t care about his own life, let alone Delani´s. All he cares about right now is Maxine.

Getting people out of these situations safely has always been his priority, and while only ever losing one person in 17 years sounds great when talking to potential customers, it doesn’t really matter when the person you´re about to lose is the _one_ person you cannot lose.

“Maxine.” Eric speaks softly, because professionalism and a cool and calm approach are not what´s going to help him here. He had tried to keep his distance from her mother back then and she had ended up dead. By his hands. He can´t bear the thought of Maxine suffering the same fate. She´s smart and clever and loyal and she belongs with him.

_With the team,_ is what he means, or that´s what he´s telling himself anyway.

“You were wrong when you said this was over, it´s not. You and I, the history we have together, the connection…it´s never going to be over.” It´s a bold approach, but Eric´s not really thinking clearly anymore. All he can focus on is the gun in Maxine´s hand and how it´s still pointed at her head.

“Remember, sweetheart. You don´t have to listen to him anymore. You don´t have to let him tell you lies,” Delani´s voice is soft and it sends a shiver down Eric´s spine. He thinks about how Delani´s been talking to Maxine in that voice, how he has left her alone and given Delani the time to do this to her, to tie her up into his web of lies and manipulation, because Eric himself had been too consumed with worrying about his daughter to realize that her kidnapping had been nothing but a distraction.

It seemed as if all the cases he lost have something to do with Maxine. She is what Oliver would have called his _Kryptonite_ , even though those words have never actually left his mouth.

“Maxine, please.” It feels as if those are the only words that make sense and Eric feels his hands shake. When they had faced the hacker Delani had wanted to recreate the scene that had shaped Eric´s life in such a particular way. Wanted him to pull the trigger. So when that hadn´t worked he had gone after the person who had prevented him from making the same mistake he had made seventeen year ago.

The only person who has managed to get through to him. Who has enough power over him to keep him from doing things that would destroy him. Which also makes Maxine the only person with enough power to actually destroy Eric.

And that´s something Delani _knows_.

“Maxine. I cannot lose you.” His voice shakes again as he speaks. Eric´s briefly thought about shooting Delani, but Maxine seems to be too far gone for that to prevent her from hurting herself. He´s in her head and with him gone she might follow suit instead of coming to her senses.

“And I cannot let you be caught up in his web of lies again, my dear.” Delani´s voice is soft again and he squeezes Maxine´s shoulder. “Your mother would be proud of you, you know that? For stepping up and taking her place, for getting back at the man who tried to take her away from me. From _you_.”

And then everything happens too fast for Eric to comprehend it. A shot rings through the air and sends everyone listening through the earpiece into a state of shock.

Eric feels as if everything around him is moving in slow motion, including himself. He glances down at the gun in his hand, it feels oddly light, but it´s not the gun that has fired the shot. His heart feels like it stops beating at the realization of what that means and he glances upwards and to where Maxine and Delani have stood just a moment ago.

There´s Maxine, the gun still in her hands, with Delani on the floor, blood dripping from a wound on his right knee.

Eric needs a moment to realize what has happened, the look in Maxine´s eyes as she glanced over at him seeming to restart the heart in his chest. With that the world begins to move at a normal state again and somehow Eric manages to alert Oliver and tells him to send in the agents.

Delani´s face is twisted in pain, but there´s something else there. A mix of disbelief and utter betrayal and Eric can barely make out what he´s yelling as he´s being dragged away.

The gun slides from his hands as his legs give in and he drops to the floor, his vision blurring with tears. He can´t remember the last time he´s cried. Or…maybe he can, but he can´t remember the last time someone´s been there to hold him.

Maxine´s right there with him, on her knees and with her arms wrapped around him. She´s holding on tighter than it should be comfortable, but Eric doesn´t care. His hands still shake as he lifts his arms and wraps them around her too, needing to know that she was really _there_.

“I´m sorry.” She whispers and her voice is quiet and shaky, much like Eric thinks his voice has sounded when he begged her not to kill herself. “I had to…I had to pretend like he got to me…into my head…otherwise we would have never been able to catch him…”

Her shoulders begin to shake and Eric knows that she´s crying too and God, she´s a clever girl. A clever _woman._ And he was right to add her to his team and maybe he´s made mistakes in his life, but taking care of Maxine Carlson has not been one of them.

“I´m sorry.” She whispers again and Eric shakes his head, turning to press his lips to her temple. “No…no. You did what was necessary.” He pulls back to look at her then and lifts his hand, wiping away a tear that has made its way down her cheek.

He´ll have nightmares about this, no doubt, but when he wakes Eric will know that Maxine is safe and sound and that she´ll show up to work the next day, that smile on her face, and there´s nothing else he could ask for.

“You know when you told me you´d never bet against me?” He then asks and Maxine nods slightly, leaning into the touch of his hand. “I should have never bet against you. I _won´t_ bet against you ever again.”

His lips curve into a smile and Eric let´s out a relieved chuckle, with Maxine joining in soon after. And that´s how the others find them, when they come barging into the room, laughing and holding onto each other like their lives depend on it.

And maybe they do.

Because while Eric has always known that life would lead Maxine right through his door, he has never known that she would choose to stay.


End file.
